Tag - documentaries

 
 

DOCUMENTARIES

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2020
Docu Meme highlights unseen victims of coronavirus pandemic in Japan
As the number of novel coronavirus infections continues to grow, so do the stigmas and stereotypes associated with certain segments of Japan's population, be they caregivers, entertainment-district workers, foreign residents, students or the unemployed and homeless.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 22, 2020
Political documentaries in Japan struggle to inspire
Japanese documentaries analyze entrenched political power with largely unsurprising results.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2020
‘Zero as You Are’: An intimate look at a journey of self-discovery
Director Miyuki Tokoi documented Takamasa “Sky” Kobayashi's life as a transgender teenager and adult over the course of nine years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2020
‘Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister’: A Sisyphean slog toward the top office
Shinzo Abe has been with us for so long now, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when Japan’s premiership seemed to rotate as frequently as the membership of AKB48.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2020
'Zero': Practicing kindness in life and in love
In Japan, people with mental illnesses have long been stigmatized, marginalized and isolated from broader society. In 2009, documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda released “Mental,” a film about Masatomo Yamamoto, an elderly psychiatrist in Okayama Prefecture who respected his patients as individuals and built close relationships with them. In the process, he challenged standard psychiatric methods that leaned heavily on medication and institutionalization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 4, 2020
Travel documentaries to feed your wanderlust
From the Lumiere brothers who traveled the globe capturing culture with their portable camera to modern day globe-trotting YouTubers with iPhones, since the late 19th-century travel documentaries have been sparking imaginations and igniting travel passions the world over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 26, 2020
'Mishima: The Last Debate': Careful revival of a battle of wits
It was the title match of the decade: the rumble in the academic jungle. On May 13, 1969, literary titan Yukio Mishima strutted onstage in front of a 1,000-strong audience at the University of Tokyo to debate with representatives of the All Campus Joint Struggle Committee, otherwise known as Zenkyoto.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 8, 2019
Documentary juxtaposes both sides of contentious debate on 'comfort women'
On May 30, three people held a news conference in Tokyo to speak out against a documentary titled "Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue," which focuses on the rhetorical battle over the women who sexually serviced Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. The participants included Nobukatsu Fujioka, vice chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which wants history textbooks to reflect the view that the government at the time did not force these women to work in authorized front-line brothels and that they were, in fact, professional prostitutes. This view is disputed by South Korea, where many comfort women were from, as well as by many Japanese scholars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 19, 2018
Japanese director's pro-whaling documentary wins award at London film festival
A 2015 documentary on local supporters of Japan's traditions of whaling and dolphin-hunting won an international film festival award Saturday in London.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Sep 16, 2017
Documentary filmmaker Megumi Sasaki learns to live in the moment in New York
For a long time Megumi Sasaki felt that something did not quite fit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 16, 2016
'Nuclear Nation' offers a long, hard look at Fukushima refugees' plight
'Nuclear Nation 2016' re-examines the situation facing Fukushima refugees forced to abandon their homes and evacuate from their hometowns after the Fukushima disaster.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2016
Documentary 'Behind "The Cove"' aims to promote multisided understanding of Japanese whaling
A Japanese woman hopes a documentary she has made will help opponents of Japan's hunting of whales and dolphins acquire a better understanding of the practice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 5, 2015
Why the world's largest record label wants to be a movie studio
Amy Winehouse's 9-year-old album "Back to Black" is outselling newer records from Beyonce, Adele and Pitbull, buoyed by critical praise for the documentary about the singer's sudden rise and fall.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 13, 2015
Filmmakers Ash and Kamanaka discuss radiation, secrets and lives
Two filmmakers who have tackled the Fukushima issue — American and Japanese, storyteller and activist — discuss their work and their films, and consider the notion of 'being a 'foreign' filmmaker.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2013
'Freddy vs. Jason' maker documents new horror: Fed's role in meltdown
Flashback to Christmas 2002. America was recovering from the twin shocks of the tech bubble crash and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The stock market was rising, real estate was heating up and optimism was rebounding.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 11, 2013
Activist, filmmaker Landau dies at 77
Saul Landau, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work gave an unprecedented glimpse into Fidel Castro's Cuba, and who co-wrote a riveting account of a Washington assassination linked to Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet, died Sept. 9 at his home in Alameda, California. He was 77.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 9, 2013
Filmmaker revisits the children of Fukushima's 'Grey Zone'
Ian Thomas Ash has won acclaim and awards at film festivals around the world for 'A2-B-C,' the second of a pair of documentaries about children living in towns a stone's throw from Fukushima No. 1.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 8, 2013
Driven by regret over neighbor's death, first-time filmmaker declares war on suicide
Rene Duignan is passionate about life — so much so that he made an award-winning film about it. Yet Duignan, 42, is not a professional filmmaker; he's an Irish economist working for the European Union delegation to Japan. The documentary, titled "Saving 10,000 — Winning a War on Suicide in Japan," is a beautifully choreographed, impassioned plea to those considering suicide to think again.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 5, 2013
Two documentaries on the rougher side of sports; CM of the week: Bandai Namco's Gundam games
The life of a pro athlete can be grueling, but 37-year-old soccer player Dan Ito has a perverse determination to make his even more so.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces